Re: Hardly Strictly Bluegrass 2012

Hell yeah. And Robin, I'm pretty sure I saw you ordering wine at OSL. "Umm, I don't really care what you pour me, just make sure you fill my cup." Exact quote. That's my kind of shit. Let's have us a drink at HSB!

Re: Hardly Strictly Bluegrass 2012

Re: Hardly Strictly Bluegrass 2012

Originally Posted by greghead

It was something strikingly similar to that. Parking is terrible. This is one of the few events in the city where living in outer sunset is actually beneficial.

Hmmm.. You don't happen to know the parking situation near outer sunset, do you? There was plenty of parking there for OSL (around Great Hwy and La Playa), and it was only a 1.5 mile walk. Maybe I'll just take Bart/Muni, if there's any room on the buses.

Re: Hardly Strictly Bluegrass 2012

Originally Posted by Robin

Hmmm.. You don't happen to know the parking situation near outer sunset, do you? There was plenty of parking there for OSL (around Great Hwy and La Playa), and it was only a 1.5 mile walk. Maybe I'll just take Bart/Muni, if there's any room on the buses.

Try to park somewhere between 20th and 30th and you'll have an easy time getting in and out. I live at Rivera & 30th and still end up driving down to Irving or Judah if I can.

Re: Hardly Strictly Bluegrass 2012

Oh thanks, but my parents will be out from Texas for the fest so we'll drive as close as we can anyway. Worst case, we have my girlfriend drop us off right at Lincoln. I walk enough on a daily basis, I'll ALWAYS save myself that extra mile. And no, there are no time limits/permits on those streets.

Re: Hardly Strictly Bluegrass 2012

Originally Posted by andyforpeace

Guess im calling in sick for Friday.

I'm just going to leave work early. The only curveball would be if the A's host the O's for the wild card game on Friday. So much shit going on in the bay area this weekend, and sports is complicating the fuck out everything.

Re: Hardly Strictly Bluegrass 2012

Re: Hardly Strictly Bluegrass 2012

I really didn't notice the crowd at all yesterday. I spent the first half of the day at Gold/Star stages, and the second half of the day at the soundboard of Star. Didn't have to battle crowds/standers/talkers/etc once all day. It was fucking great.

Re: Hardly Strictly Bluegrass 2012

I didn't go on Sunday but it seemed alot less crowded this year than last year. Friday was relatively sparse.

Reignwolf was pretty awesome. And John Paul Jones joined Seasick Steve for his set. Yes that JPJ. That was incredible and they really jammed out. JPJ played like four different instruments. It would have been great to have gotten a Zeppelin cover but it was badass nonetheless.

Re: Hardly Strictly Bluegrass 2012

Saturday was fairly crowded but everyone seemed to be camped out at a stage and not moving around which limited the foot traffic and bottlenecks. Sat way back and didn't really feel like working my way through a fairly packed crowd of talkers. Basically it became a day out in the park with friends then to see/hear any music. May be my last one but still had fun - weather was great, blue angles were a crowd pleaser, saw many hulu hoopers.

Re: Hardly Strictly Bluegrass 2012

Originally Posted by lt.roast.a.botch

Saturday was fairly crowded but everyone seemed to be camped out at a stage and not moving around which limited the foot traffic and bottlenecks. Sat way back and didn't really feel like working my way through a fairly packed crowd of talkers. Basically it became a day out in the park with friends then to see/hear any music. May be my last one but still had fun - weather was great, blue angles were a crowd pleaser, saw many hulu hoopers.

That's pretty much what my friends and I did. Just camped out at the back of the Arrow and Star stages. Threw the frisbee around for a bit and played Uno.

Re: Hardly Strictly Bluegrass 2012

Originally Posted by Vasoline Groove

I didn't go on Sunday but it seemed alot less crowded this year than last year. Friday was relatively sparse.

Reignwolf was pretty awesome. And John Paul Jones joined Seasick Steve for his set. Yes that JPJ. That was incredible and they really jammed out. JPJ played like four different instruments. It would have been great to have gotten a Zeppelin cover but it was badass nonetheless.

John Paul Jones played with Giant Giant Sand as well. Sweet.

Red Baraat brought the funk Saturday. So much fun, I've never seen a HSB crowd get down like that. It's hard to get most SF crowds to even bob their heads but they had everyone on their feet getting down. At 11 AM. Again, so much fun.

Great weekend overall, saw and enjoyed an overwhelming amount of music. Saw everyone I wanted and never had to fight the crowds (NOTE: attendance was allegedly down about 20-30% from last year, according to the Chronicle).

Re: Hardly Strictly Bluegrass 2012

Originally Posted by greghead

John Paul Jones played with Giant Giant Sand as well. Sweet.

Red Baraat brought the funk Saturday. So much fun, I've never seen a HSB crowd get down like that. It's hard to get most SF crowds to even bob their heads but they had everyone on their feet getting down. At 11 AM. Again, so much fun.

Great weekend overall, saw and enjoyed an overwhelming amount of music. Saw everyone I wanted and never had to fight the crowds (NOTE: attendance was allegedly down about 20-30% from last year, according to the Chronicle).

That sounds pretty accurate. I think the less known line-up this year and all the other options going on in the bay really reduced the crowd to a much more manageable level.

Re: Hardly Strictly Bluegrass 2012

Had a really good time this year. Weather could not have been better. Clean, glassy surf each morning, followed by beautiful fall afternoon sunlight in the park and great music. Made it down Friday after work to catch Reignwolf (thanks for the rec Greghead, watched a live video and was hooked). He put on a good show, was definitely feeling it and the setting was awesome at that time of day.

On Saturday, the wifey and I weren't really planning on going, but the weather had us changing out minds... we got on the bikes and made it down for Robyn Hitchcock's set on the Porch stage. We were just going minimal effort and that was the closest stage to where we parked our bikes (nice job HSB by adding more bike racks for self parking a la OSL, they were needed and appreciated). Turns out, we got a special guest on stage for that set, John Paul Jones. He jammed with Robyn for several songs. We tried to leave and walk toward another stage, but after seeing the mess at Banjo and Rooster, we turned around and went back to the porch stage. We camped til the end of the day and saw a really good set by Seasick Steve, who also invited JPJ up.

Sunday, kind of same program for us. We started the afternoon at the top of Divisadero (at Jackson) to watch the start of the America's Cup World Series race. We saw one of the fleet race starts, which was hectic, I think there were 11 boats jockeying to get around the first marker. We then made our way out to the festival, arriving in time to catch most of Son Volt's set. The crowd was much more mellow than Saturday, but I was still nervous trying to negotiate for a good spot to see Patti Smith. Luckily, a good friend did the leg work and we got a spot right near the soundboard (arrived about 40 min early). It was my first time seeing her and it was an awesome way to end the festival. Again, beautiful sunlight put a glow on the faces of the performers and fans alike. I think Warren may have just been smiling down on GG Park for us all too.